Executive Chef Leading Launch of Cohns' Coasterra Announced

The Cohn Restaurant Group's 10+ million project spanning 28,000-square-feet on Harbor Island, a partnership with Sunroad Enterprises, will make its grand debut in August.

Ambitious and sprawling, Coasterra combines an indoor/outdoor waterfront restaurant with a wedding and special event center that includes a huge floating deck and banquet room. With mid-century design by the late Graham Downes (Graham Downes Architecture) and abstract murals from local Mexican artist Rafael Lopez, the restaurant portion of Coasterra will have seating for more than 300 people, over half of which will be located outside to take advantage of the setting's harbor views.

Longtime CRG partner, chef Deborah Scott, has been developing a menu inspired by regional Mexican cuisine, but newly-named to lead the kitchen here is executive chef John Gray, whose resume includes The Ritz-Carlton Resorts in Laguna Nigel and Cancun and several eponymous restaurants along the Riviera Maya coast in Mexico. Most recently, Gray worked in Panama City, where he executive cheffed at the Waldorf Astoria and the Hilton Panama. Gray will be cooking up everything from a tostada topped with soy, garlic and sesame oil-glazed tuna, creamy coleslaw and cilantro sprouts, a tamale with crispy crimini mushrooms, goat cheese, pomegranate seeds, and smoked poblano cream, and a signature surf and turf dish that includes beef short rib, Oaxacan mole, lobster risotto cake and charred asparagus. There will even be a cart making guacamole tableside, with optional shellfish add-ons, and a beverage program that ranges from a deep list of agave spirits to wine from Latin America and Baja and more than a dozen San Diego and Mexican craft beers.